Department Achievements

Our department works hard conducting research, teaching classes, and remaining engaged
with local and global trends on topics that impact us and shape the future. The Department
of Political Science is proud to recognize the achievements of our faculty, graduate
students, and staff in service of our mission.

2019-2020

Senior Political Science Majors Present at Virtual Honors College Symposum

Senior Political Science Majors Andrew Bearkland,
Jeanette Blanchette, and Hana Kim from the Honors College virtually presented their research as part of the
2020 Senior Symposim this past week. To view their posters click below and to view their presentations,
visit the Virtual Symposium web page.

The goal of this research project was to discuss the pertinence, implications, and
possible issues of a human rights convention to safeguard the basic rights of all
peoples regardless of SOGIESC. The project outlines how the UN is currently mishandling
the issue of SOGIESC human rights, how many countries worldwide are allowing the abuse
of this community through legal frameworks and other means such as hate crimes, and
how the mental and physical health of people of diverse SOGIESC are at stake in bringing
light to this issue. I combined the framework of the Convention on the Elimination
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) with the rights outlined in the Yogyakarta
Principles Plus Ten (YP+10) to create a prospective human rights convention titled
the “Convention on Human Rights on the Basis of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity
and Expression, and Sexual Characteristics (SOGIESC)”, as well as how this convention
could be effective by evaluating the positive effects of the CEDAW. My mentor was
Dr. Charles Robbins and I came to this project through my interest in international
human rights and the advancement of the SOGIESC rights. I am graduating Summa Cum
Laude with majors of political science and sociology and minors of international studies
and Asian/Asian-American studies, and next fall I am attending George Washington University
Law School to earn my JD.

During the 2016 election, polarization became an often-used reason to explain partisan
hostility. Social media was at the forefront of political communication; shaping policy
and public perception. Despite some research stating the opposite, many Americans
believe that increasing polarization is the cause of this hostility and I wanted to
know why. For these reasons, I chose to work with Dr. Yanna Krupnikov who is an expert
in this field and has written extensively about it. With this research project, I
specifically wanted to prove that social media makes people believe there is more
polarization than there actually is. After conducting my experiment, I found that
the anger treatment influenced respondents to be more polarized than they actually
were. Some results did not prove any polarization and it is possible that respondents
may have caught on to what the experiment was trying to test and acted differently.
However, anger continued to be prevalent throughout the experiment as many still believed
angry discourse to be the most accurate representation of the current American political
landscape. In the future, I hope to become either a foreign policy or public policy
analyst and work for the State Department.

Governments sometimes want to mitigate the threat of various types of disasters. Governments
can invest in prevention and preparedness before a disaster strikes, and they can
spend on relief for citizens after a disaster strikes. The U.S. can also invest in
epidemic research and public health. This could be a type of prevention spending because
it could help the country be better prepared and reduce the likelihood of an epidemic.
While my study doesn’t look into viruses specifically, my research sheds light on
public attitudes toward disaster policies generally. Past research has shown that
citizens reward incumbents for relief spending in response to disasters, but not for
prevention spending. However, it is not clear whether these study results reflect
the public’s true policy preferences. In my research, I use a survey experiment to
study (1) how framing the issue as a disaster prevention spending — as opposed to
a disaster relief spending — affects an individual’s vote, and (2) how each policy
leads to different levels of thinking about deservingness. I find no evidence that
people support relief policies over prevention policies. Finally, the results suggest
that people think about disaster victims as people when evaluating a relief policy
more than they do when evaluating a prevention policy. After I graduate, I plan to
apply to a Ph.D. program in a political science department concentrating on political psychology.
I wish to learn more quantitative research methods, start teaching undergraduate classes
by my 3rd year in the program, and be a good scientist. I am hoping to become a professor
one day.

Payel Sen Recognized with Young Public Opinion Stars Award by NYAAPOR

PhD student Payel Sen has won a second place Young Public Opinion Stars award from
the New York chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (
NYAAPOR) for her research on humanitarianism and charitable donations. Payel was recognized
at the virtual chapter meeting on 4/28/2020. Congratuations Payel!

Brandon Marshall (PhD '20) has been announced as a top 8 finalist in the Graduate
School's 2020 Three Minute Thesis Competition. Virtual voting takes places April 28-April
30, so view the finalists videos and
cast your vote! Learn more about Brandon's research
here or follow him
here.